Osian's Auction Catalogue Indian Modern Fine Arts | June 2017

47 J. Swaminathan (1928 – 1994) Mountain, Tree & Bird Series Ink on paper, c.1969 Inscribed ‘Authenticated S. Harsha Vardhana 1.11.2000’ on verso of mount 11.0 x 9.0 in (23.0 x 27.6 cm) Provenance Purchased directly from the artist by Dhoomimal Art Gallery. Illustrative Reference Colour illustration of same series rpt. in Artists Handicrafts Association (Institutional Author). India Art since the Early 40s: A Search for Identity. Madras: Artists Handicrafts Association, 1974. p.89 INR 400,000 – 600,000 USD 6,250 – 9,375 “…what art deals with, perhaps, is not the continuity but the moment of discontinuity, the aspect of discontinuity. So in that sense there is no growth in art. It is only when you start putting things in perspective that you start discovering the contours of movement. So if you do away with perspective, what are you left with? … The critical part of the creative process for me is to drop all consciously arrived at images, so that whatever else is left, that comes out…” J. Swaminathan, in conversation with Neville Tuli, October 1993 (probably the last recorded conversation with the artist). “Because he is whimsical, unpredictable, he paints as a man possessed. His vocabulary is loaded with metaphor as any metaphoric tribal wall; nothing new is consciously attempted, only the fanciful marking representing the mood of the moment is brought into play: automatic scribbling, patterns that cancel out weight against image, smudge against crust, and the crisscrossing doodling game.” K.B. Goel, rpt. in Vadehra Gallery ExC, 1993. Indian Modern Fine Arts | 111